Instep-holder for shoes



(No Model.)

M. J. PERREN.

Instep Holder for Shoes.

Pteri dN .2,1ss0.

NVFETERS, PHOTO UIHOGRAPHEIL WASHINGTON, D c.

UNITED STATES MYRON J. FERREN, OF STONEHAM, ASSIGNOR TO GORDON MGKAY, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

lNSTEP-HOLDER FOR SHOES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 233,844, dated November 2, 1880.

Application filed August 13, 1880.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, MYRoN J. FERREN, of Stoneham, county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Instep-Holders for Shoes, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

This invention relates to an instep-h older for shoes, it being a device especially devised to hold together the lacing part of a shoe while being lasted.

In lasting that class of shoes provided with eyelets or equivalent devices, to co-operate with a lacing to bring the shoe together over the instep of the foot, it has always been customary, preparatory to lasting the shoe, to secure together by a thread or string usually a waxed threadthe edges of the shoe at the instep-coverin g portion, said thread being run through one or more eyelets at each side of the shoe. This thread is drawn more or less taut, stretches more or less during the lasting process, and sometimes breaks, and the insertion of the thread and tying it requires considerable time. For this purpose I have made a device consisting, essentially, of movable arms provided with engaging devices, which may be quickly engaged with an eyelet or other hole at each side the instep slit or opening of the shoe, and by moving the arms or levers the edges of the shoe at the instep may be drawn or held more or less closely together, and as soon as the shoe is lasted the instepholder may be removed and applied to another shoe. In this way it is possible and practicable to insure just the same amount of space between or at the edges of the shoe to cover the instep, and greater accuracy is insured as to the size of the shoe.

Figure 1 represents, in top view, one of my instep-holders applied to a shoe and about to be engaged with the eyelet or lacing holes along the edges of the instep-covering portions. Fig. 2 shows the device engaged with the shoe, and holding the eyeleted edges firmly together ready for the upper to be lasted in the usual way; Fig. 3, an enlarged view of the saddle portion of the holder and Fig. 4, a transverse section thereof on the line am, Fig. 2.

The main part of the holder is composed of (No model.)

the saddle a, to fit the rounded upper part of the instep or top part of the last. This saddle part will preferably have a rib, 2, to receive the ears I) c, slotted at 3, grooved to fit the rib 2, and secured adj ustabl y thereto by the screws (1, the ears I) 0 being made adjustable toward or from each other to adapt the holder to shoes and lasts of different sizes and to accommodate for the distance it is desired to leave between the instep-covering edges 0 c of the upper f,of usual material and shape, the said edges being, however, shown as provided with a series of eyelets or lacing-holes, g, of usual kind.

Upon the ears I) c, at 4 5, I have pivoted the levers, arms, or pullers h 1', each provided, as herein shown, with a pin or stud, k, which I denominate the Fedge-engaging device, the said studs being adapted to enter holes at opposite sides or edges of the shoe-upper when the holder and its pullers 7M are as in Fig. 1, when, by turning the said pullers into the position shown in Fig. 2, the saddle will ride upward along the upper, the studs 70 will approach each other, and the studs, passed into the position Fig. 2 with relation to the centers 4. 5, will remain in such position and hold the edges 0 e of the shoe more or less separated from each other while the shoe is being lasted by hand or power, the lower edges of the vamp and quarter being drawn about the inner sole on the last in any usual way, and being then secured by tacks, nails, or pegs.

Believing myself to be the first to invent and produce a device to hold the instep, as described, I will state that I do not desire to limit myself to the exact construction of instepholder herein shown, as other forms of arms or pullers might be used; and so, also, instead of studs 70, I might use jaws or clamps to pinch or engage the edges 0.

The employment of this holder, besides making shoes of like sizes more accurate and uniform in the fullness of the instep, also greatly of the shoe and hold them at the proper dis tance apart while the shoe-upper is bein g lasted substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

MYRON J. FERREN.

Witnesses:

G. W. GREGORY, N. E. O. WHITNEY. 

